Rishi Sunak has said the Conservatives will not return any of the money donated to the party by Frank Hester because he “apologised genuinely”.
Electoral Commission data released earlier this month shows that Hester — who previously said veteran MP Diane Abbott made him want to “hate all black women” and “should be shot” — had donated a further £5 million to the Conservatives.
That is on top of the £10 million Hester donated last year.
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Reacting at the time, Diane Abbott said: “Rishi Sunak belatedly admitted Frank Hester’s remarks that ‘I made him hate all black woman and should be shot’ were racist.”
The Labour Party candidate for Hackney North and Stoke Newington added: “Now it turns out Sunak accepted a further £5 million from him. An insult to me and all black women.”
In 2019, Hester said that Abbott made him want to “hate all black women and that she “should be shot”.
The comments were reported by The Guardian in March of this year.
A spokesperson for the entrepreneur released a statement, responding to The Guardian report, saying: “Frank Hester accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbott in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin.
“The Guardian is right when it quotes Frank saying he abhors racism, not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970s.”
They added that Hester rang Abbott to “try to apologise directly for the hurt he has caused her, and is deeply sorry for his remarks”.
“He wishes to make it clear that he regards racism as a poison which has no place in public life.”
The prime minister was asked directly if the Conservatives would return Frank Hester’s donations during a phone-in on LBC on Wednesday morning.
Sunak responded: “No.”
“As I said, when someone apologises genuinely for what they have done and expresses contrition I think that should be be accepted and that is what happened in this case”, he added.
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